Anne Frank Exhibit

We were looking for something *free* to do recently. We recalled seeing signs for the Anne Frank Exhibit while having lunch with Chris in Sandy Springs. Admission was free, so we decided to check it out.

The Anne Frank Exhibit is in a strip mall in Sandy Springs. It's not very big, but they've done a great job with the space they have.

We started our tour by watching a 28 minute video titled "The Short Life of Anne Frank". The movie was really good. It showed lots of live footage from World War II and the holocaust. It even had the only known footage of Anne Frank. The movie was informative and quite interesting.

After the video, we toured the exhibit. It is primarily an exhibit of photographs.

Hannah enjoyed looking at this model of the annex where Anne & her family hid.

This was an accurate mock up of Anne's room.

Here's a close up of what her desk looked like with a copy of the famous diary with the plaid cover.

At the end of the exhibit, there were these rolled up pieces of paper stuck in a wood board. The sign said that there were phrases and sentences from Anne's diary on each one and for you to take one as a reminder of your visit.

Here's what Hannah's paper said.

There was a donation box near the entrance. If you gave a $10 donation, you were given a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank. Now Hannah has her own copy.

We spent about an hour at the exhibit and that included the 28 minute video. The exhibit led to some good conversations during lunch afterwards.

Fun in Sandy Springs

Recently there was a Facebook Deal for a kids play area in Sandy Springs. The place is called the Sandy Springs Funhouse, located off of Roswell Road. The deal was for 2 games of laser tag and 2 play passes for $15, regularly priced at $30. My husband works in Sandy Springs, so I thought it might be something fun we could do, then go out to lunch with Dad.

One thing that I liked about the Sandy Springs Funhouse when I checked out their website was that they were geared toward kids of all ages, not just little ones. I was a little concerned with James since he is 13,but the play area was open to all ages, even adults. They have a separate area just for toddlers. I did warn both of my kids to be careful of smaller kids when they were playing.


This is a view of the play area.


James & Hannah

I love it when you can disguise exercise as fun!!!



This reminded me of a place called "Blockbuster Block Party" that was open in the mid 1990's in Indianapolis. It was a play place for adults - with a few restaurants, an arcade, motion simulator rides, and a "play place". Kids were allowed during the day, but in the evenings you had to be 21. Nothing like drinking beer, then riding a motion simulator! If you have ever climbed around in one of these play areas, you know that it's not the most comfortable thing to do. Block Party had knee pads that you could borrow to climb through. The highlight of the play area was the huge ball pit in the center. My husband and his friends would get in trouble for throwing the balls at people. The arcade was huge and had a nice variety of old and new games.

Anyway, I am finished with my trip down Memory Lane. Back to the Sandy Springs Funhouse.



The kids played some games and earned a few tickets.

There were some older games, such as an original Tron. The website said that they had games to appeal to the parents as well as the kids.


This was Hannah's favorite game. It was called Lazer Frenzy. You had to climb through the lazer beams without making contact - like in the movie Entrapment or in episodes of Kim Possible.

You had to get to the other end of the room and touch a button, then make your way back to the other side and press a button on that side. There was a time limit and it kept track of each time you made contact with a beam.


They played a game of Air Hockey.


Overall, we enjoyed the Sandy Springs Funhouse. It was a little smaller than I expected it to be. It wasn't very crowded when we got there at about 11am. There was a small daycare group there and a birthday party. By the time Chris arrived, close to 1:00, it was getting more crowded. There was a parents area, but it was just tables and chairs. I've been to some play places and they've had sofas and comfy chairs for the parents. There was one "bouncy" type slide/castle. The arcade games took tokens, not quarters. There was a small snack bar with a limited menu. Hannah wanted some goldfish crackers, but they were out of those. We did get bottled water.


I didn't get a picture of their lazer tag game. From what I could see, it was a nice arena. Chris came and joined us around lunch time, then we went to our favorite Sandy Springs eating place, Jason's Deli.


Then, as if that wasn't enough fun in Sandy Springs, we went to Whole Foods after lunch and bought a few items not available in Powder Springs grocery stores! Chris & James made a tub of almond butter (like peanut butter).
And that concludes our fun in Sandy Springs.